[nabs-l] Disclosing That I am Blind onjob/internship application process?
Karl Martin Adam
kmaent1 at gmail.com
Fri Jul 24 21:41:14 UTC 2015
This is, as others have said, debated. In the NFB we for the
most part describe ourselves as "blind people" and as "the
blind." There are very good reasons for that; other personal
characteristics don't use person first language. For instance, I
would describe myself as "a straight, white, male" not as "a
person who is straight, white, and a male." Setting disability
up as the exception to our normal ways of talking about ourselves
seems like a very bad idea if we believe that blindness and other
disabilities are characteristics like any others. They also play
into the medical model of disability (we describe diseases in
person first language e.g. a person with cancer, a person with
heart disease etc.), so person first language with regard to
disabilities plays into the public narrative that disabilities
are diseases to be cured. . There is, of course, the issue of
the etymology of "disability" as literally meaning a
"non-ability", but I'm not convinced that describing ourselves as
"impaired," which is the only alternative I've heard of, really
has better connotations.
Best,
Karl
----- Original Message -----
From: justin williams via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
To: "'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'"
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Fri, 24 Jul 2015 14:15:39 -0400
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Disclosing That I am Blind onjob/internship
application process?
The correct term is someone who has a disability. You wouldn't
say someone
who is disabled. If you do that with true proes in the field,
they will get
you for that. The theory is that a disability does not make you
disabled.
Justin.
-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
Kaiti Shelton
via nabs-l
Sent: Friday, July 24, 2015 1:17 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Cc: Kaiti Shelton <crazy4clarinet104 at gmail.com
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Disclosing That I am Blind on
job/internship
application process?
Hi, Miso and all,
I'm in a position where my field helps people who have
disabilities.
I would be very selective in using this, but if I'm applying to
work in a
school's special needs program I might say, "As someone who is
disabled I
believe I will have a greater sense of empathy and knowledge of
disability
issues than someone who does not have a disability." That could
also lead
into talk about role modeling and the student feeling more
comfortable
discussing disability issues with me than their non-disabled
parents,
teachers, friends, etc. However, if I'm applying for a job in
someplace like
a hospital setting, where disability is not the main thing, I
would say the
same but say, "As I have been hospitalized as a child to undergo
surgeries
and other treatments," instead of the disability bit.
I currently hold two jobs and am waiting to hear back from
another where
blindness was a factor in my hiring process. One sounds similar
to yours in
that it is an accessibility tester for my school, and the other
is at a
center for the blind in my hometown where I work the phones at
the front
desk. I have 2 separate resumes to use when applying for one or
the other
kind of job; for jobs that don't want to hear about blindness
stuff I've got
a very clean-cut resume, but for jobs like this and the
disability services
office one I interviewed for I have one that mentions the access
technology
I can use, the braille codes I know, my experience working with
others who
have disabilities, etc.
You also have to be careful on resumes with the scholarships; my
"clean" one
doesn't mention the word blind at all, except for that I
volunteered at one
place for the blind for a significant time under music therapists
and the
center where I was a receptionist. The other one mentions it far
more,
including my NFB scholarships at the national and state level,
the camp I
counsel for, etc. Also on the clean copy I use "visually
impaired" when
describing positions that have me working with blind people. Not
that I'm a
fan of doing that in normal life, but in my field it is the
politically
correct terminology and it isn't as jarring as saying blind.
On 7/24/15, Bryan Duarte via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
I would like to share my recent experience with this topic. I
was
recently contact by Google to explore my career opportunities
with
them in the Software Engineering field. They had a copy of my
resume
in hand already and I do not disclose that I am blind but I do
make
several references to my research focus areas, student
organizations I
am apart of, and my student clubs I operate. Each of these areas
on my
resume give insight to my focus on the blind and low vision
community.
I also make reference to the different tools I use and am
proficient
in including the screen readers I use and Braille display.
Now during this initial contact I talked with the recruiter for
about
an hour before he eventually began telling me how the interview
process would operate. I would be expected to use google
hangouts to
share my screen and google docs to share with an engineer so
they
could watch me write code collaboratively. This part was ok I
still did
not disclose my blindness.
Next he explained that if I were to be moved to the next stage
of the
process they would be flying me out to Mountain View California
for a
series of follow up interviews with four more engineers where I
would
be expected to write code once again, but this time it would be
writing it on a white board. For software engineers this is a
common
way of laying out code when working on teams so I was familiar
with
the possibility this would be asked of me. Now I had a decision
to
make here. I could disclose my blindness and give them the
opportunity
to make accommodations for me a head of time, or I could show up
to
the interview concealing my disability and potentially set
myself up
for failure. I continued to listen intently to how the process
was
going to work and when he asked me if I had any questions I took
this
opportunity to say, "Yes actually I do have a question and a few
comments."
I went on to explain that I have no problem using google
hangouts and
google docs to write code, but I did have a little issue with
white
boarding code.
My exact words were something to the effect of, well you might
notice
my references to all the focus on blind accessibility and
assistive
technology, he replied yes, and I told him it is because I am a
software engineer who has no problem developing software with
the best
of them but I do it as a blind person. As you might guess he was
able
to read between the lines when he reviewed my resume and already
had a
pretty good idea but as a good recruiter he was not going to ask
the
question unless I first brought it up.
To sum this up I will be having an interview with Google
engineers
this August and if I should make it to the second stages of
interviews
they are well aware of my disability, my need for
accommodations, and
more than willing to make those necessary accommodations. I
think we
as people with a disability in a world that is becoming more and
more
aware of our presents and drive for equal and competitive
employment
it is in our favor to wait for the right time and place to
disclose
our disability in a way that makes it known we will be doing
things
differently but we can and will still be committed to the
opportunity
just as the rest of the people who interview. I hope this helps.
Go Devils!
Bryan Duarte
ASU Software Engineering
QwikEyes CEO
On Jul 24, 2015, at 8:57 AM, Justin Harford via nabs-l
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
wrote:
You could put blind related experience on your resume. For
example,
if you served on the board of the Association of blind students
at
any level, you could put that on your resume as part of your
experience.
This is if you were looking to disclose.
Sent from my iPad
On Jul 24, 2015, at 6:00 AM, Suzanne Germano via nabs-l
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
My opinion if you put in on a resume you make it look like maybe
it
is an issue. It is like at a career fair it would have been
awkward
for me to say Hi I am Suzanne I am looking for an internship and
I
am legally blind.
What
i did do was use my cane so they would know why I was squinting
and
holding paperwork to my nose.
If it is just an inconvenience then why put it on a resume? just
show up at the interview with your cane or dog.
You resume should only speak to why you are a fit for the job.
Now
don't hide it for example if you received and NFB Scholarship
then
you add that under awards.
Suzanne
On Fri, Jul 24, 2015 at 7:38 AM, Carly via nabs-l <
nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
Morning, Justin,
If blindness remains like a party line insists, nothing more
than a
what
do they call it, mere inconvenience, then why aren't we
encouraged to
be
forthright about this personal characteristic? Feels a little
dishonest to me. Aren't we supposed to embrace this personal
characteristic? For my part, I love my blindness, want people
whom
mix with me also to regard this blindness in a positive light.
Car
disability of any sort. However, some situations do benefit you
to disclose such. Usually, I wouldn't disclose until you have
the
interview for sure, and I wouldn't do that unless my disability
was obvious upon sight.
So,
if
you have a cane, dog, or something to indicate you have a
disability, in other words, your disability is not hidden,
telling
the interviewer before you arrive lessens the shock value, and
at
least gives you a better chance of having an honest interview.
It
also gives you the ability to better access whether or not the
place in question is a good fit for you; you are interviewing
them
as much as they are interviewing you. Of course, you can just go
to the interview not having told them anything if you think that
is best, you are not required to disclose at all. If you are in
need of an accommodation during the interview application or
interview process, then you have to disclose in order to receive
the appropriate accommodation.
I
hope this helps.
Justin.
-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
Miso
Kwak via nabs-l
Sent: Friday, July 24, 2015 3:11 AM
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Cc: Miso Kwak <kwakmiso at aol.com
Subject: [nabs-l] Disclosing That I am Blind on job/internship
application process?
Hello everyone,
What are your thoughts about disclosing our blindness when
applying to internships and/or jobs?
I currently have a job (which is my first official job) so I
have
done it once, but I had an easy way.
My blindness was a major factor in being hired because I work
for
making an accessible campus map for my university. I got
recruited
because I was a blind student who was active on campus, so I did
not have to think about when and how to disclose my blindness.
I am currently applying to different internships with hope of
getting one to complete one of my minor requirements.
So I am a bit confused and concerned on how I should handle
disclosing that I am blind.
Would you do it on case by case basis?
For instance, if you were applying to an organization that
mainly
serves blind client, would you disclose that you are blind,
whereas, if you were applying for a corporate internship or a
baby
sitting job, you would not?
I'd just like to hear your thoughts on this matter.
Thank you in advance.
Miso Kwak
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--
Kaiti Shelton
University of Dayton-Music Therapy
President, Ohio Association of Blind Students 2013-Present
Secretary, The
National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts Division
2015-2016
"You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you
back!"
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